The invention relates to a universal textile or carding machine for selectively producing either a longitudinally oriented fiber fleece, a tangle-fibered fleece, or a mixture of both such fleeces.
A universal textile machine for selectively producing either longitudinally oriented webs or tangled webs is already known (DE-OS No. 35 10 951.3-26). Such a textile machine comprises a main cylinder and carding elements cooperating therewith, a fiber drawing-in device and a doffer, whose card clothings adjoin the circumferential area of the main cylinder, and further comprises a supplementary intermediate roller furnished with a card clothing and the shaft of which may be positioned into a first or a second position by a setting mechanism for adjusting the distance between the doffer roller and the main cylinder, by selecting the position such that when the doffer roller is put into its operating position, the card clothing of the intermediate roller is out of operational engagement relative to the card clothings of the main cylinder and of the doffer roller, and that in the second position, when the doffer roller is operationally separated from the main cylinder, the card clothing of the intermediate roller is in its operating position both relative to the card clothing of the main cylinder and of the doffer roller. The main cylinder and the intermediate roller have the same direction of rotation.
Depending on the correlated position of the intermediate roller and of the doffer roller, either longitudinally fibered or tangle-fibered fleeces may be produced.
The known textile machine further comprises a second doffer roller and coordinated intermediate roller similar in operation to the first doffer roller and coordinated intermediate roller. Each of the doffer units may be set to the production either of a longitudinally oriented or a tangled fleece. The fleece manufactured by such a textile machine is a combination of the fleeces leaving the doffer units. However, sometimes it is desirable to manufacture thin fleeces, and manufacturing such a fleece with a known textile machine afforded the disassembly of one of the doffer units, which is time-consuming and cumbersome.